Candidate’s petition fails

Petition to run for Republican Party’s Ward 3 nomination declared invalid.

By: Leon Tovey
   MONROE — Carlos Lopez’s petition to run for the Republican Party’s nomination for the Ward 3 seat on the Township Council has been declared invalid by the township clerk’s office.
   Registrar and Township Clerk Sharon Doerfler said Monday that Mr. Lopez’s petition to run in the June 7 primary did not have enough qualified signatures to guarantee him a place on the ballot. Mr. Lopez can still run as a write-in candidate, she said.
   State election law requires primary petitions to be accompanied by the signatures of at least 5 percent of the number of people who voted in their party’s last General Assembly primary. Under those requirements, Mr. Lopez needed three signatures. Ms. Doerfler said Mr. Lopez’s petition was accompanied by 22 signatures, but that not enough of those were from registered Republicans.
   "I messed up," Mr. Lopez said Wednesday. "Being a novice at (politics), I made my first big mistake."
   Mr. Lopez, who is seeking a council seat for the first time, said he already has begun campaigning as a write-in candidate. In order to clinch the nomination, Mr. Lopez will need three write-in votes from registered Republicans in the primary.
   Sidna Mitchell, chairwoman of the township’s Republican Municipal Committee, on Tuesday called the invalid petition a minor setback resulting from the fact that many people in the township — and elsewhere in Middlesex County — who believe they are registered as Republicans in fact are not.
   The current system of voter registration in Middlesex County requires a resident registering to vote to fill out a separate, party-registration card in addition to the voter registration card, said James Vokral, administrator of the county Board of Elections. Residents who do not fill out party-registration cards are registered as "unaffiliated."
   "It’s kind of funny," Mr. Lopez said. "When we heard about (the petition being invalid), we found out that my wife — who always pulls the Republican lever — is not registered as a Republican."
   Mr. Lopez and his wife moved to the township from Hackensack in 1993.
   "We had no idea that party affiliation doesn’t transfer automatically," he said.
   Mr. Vokral said a new statewide voter registration system currently being developed under the federal Help America Vote Act will add party affiliation to the registration card, but that system will not go into effect until 2006.
   "I always tell people to get twice as many signatures as they need — just to be safe," Ms. Mitchell said. "And you really need to check the registered voter list to make sure your signatures are valid. I guess in this case, (Mr. Lopez) didn’t do that."
   Township Council’s Ward 3 seat currently is occupied by Council President Joanne Connolly.